The rhizosphere is a zone of fundamental importance for understanding the dynamics of nutrient acquisition by plant roots. The canonical difficulty of experimentally investigating the rhizosphere led long ago to the adoption of mathematical models, the most sophisticated of which now incorporate explicit representations of root hairs and rhizosphere soil. Mathematical upscaling regimes, such as...

Soil nutrients and microbial communities are the two key factors in revegetation of barren environments. Ecological stoichiometry plays an important role in ecosystem function and limitation, but the relationships between above- and belowground stoichiometry and the bacterial communities in a typical karst region are poorly understood. We used pepino (Solanum muricatum) to examine the stoichiom...

Root activity can modify the chemistry of the rhizosphere and alter phosphorus (P) availability and uptake. However, until recently, relatively little was known about the dynamics of soil solution P at the root surface because of our inability to measure in situ changes in solution P at the plant root. A mini-rhizotron experiment with corn (Zea mays L. cv. Stine 2250), soybean [Glycine max (L.)...

It is widely known that the carbon availability in the rhizosphere is much higher than in the bulk soil. However, studies have failed to show whether microbial respiration in the rhizosphere is carbon-limited. Precise and timely measurements are lacking. We measured carbon availability index (basal respiration divided by substrate-induced respiration), and water soluble carbon in soils sampled ...

BACKGROUND Autotoxicity of cucumber root exudates or decaying residues may be the cause of the soil sickness of cucumber. However, how autotoxins affect soil microbial communities is not yet fully understood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The aims of this study were to study the effects of an artificially applied autotoxin of cucumber, p-coumaric acid, on cucumber seedling growth, rhizospher...

Mycorrhizal association in seven plants grown in Arasbaran forest located in the north west of Iran was investigated. The soil samples were collected from the plants rhizosphere. Physico-chemical properties of rhizosphere soils like soil texture, pH, EC and some extractable nutrients such as N, P and K were recorded. The number of spores in rhizosphere and percentage of root mycorrhizal coloniz...

The composition of the microbial community in the rhizosphere was investigated using three different techniques: direct soil–phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA), cfu–PLFA (using culturable bacteria only) and community-level physiological profiles (CLPP) using Biolog GN microtitre plates. All three techniques showed that the rhizosphere bacterial community differed from the bulk soil community, when ...

Knowledge on the factors that determine the composition of bacterial communities in the vicinity of roots (rhizosphere) is essential to understand plant-soil interactions. Plant species identity, plant growth stage and soil properties have been indicated as major determinants of rhizosphere bacterial community composition. Here we show that the presence of saprotrophic fungi can be an additiona...

Microbial communities in the rhizosphere make significant contributions to crop health and nutrient cycling. However, their ability to perform important biogeochemical processes remains uncharacterized. Here, we identified important functional genes that characterize the rhizosphere microbial community to understand metabolic capabilities in the maize rhizosphere using the GeoChip-based functio...

Pot experiments were conducted to investigate the role of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the Cd speciation in the rhizosphere of hyperaccumulating ecotype (HE) and non-hyperaccumulating ecotype (NHE) of Sedum alfredii and its effects on Cd mobility. After growing HE S. alfredii, the rhizosphere soil solution pH of heavily polluted soil (HPS) and slightly polluted soil (SPS) was reduced by 0....